Rupaul’s Drag Race star, Valentina and recording artist Jake Zyrus star in Troy Laureta’s new music video for his single and kundiman, “Kung Kita’y Kapiling”
Fil-Am music producer, Troy Laureta released another heartfelt rendition of classic Filipino music, this time with Kung Kita’y Kapiling, a kundiman that’s close to his heart and one of the songs in the second volume of his OPM collective, Giliw. According to Laureta, “Kundiman is something I always love, Kung Kita’y Kapiling is super classic. It talks about love, wanting to be with someone until death, you know loving them. I always wanted it to be beautiful, the video to showcase a different aspect of love maybe the Philippines and Asia is not used to so I love it.”
Last February 9, the music video forKung Kita’y Kapiling was released and what made it extra special was that it was Jake Zyrus’ second time collaborating with Laureta in his OPM collective. The first one was with the song, Usahay, another kundiman included in Kaibigan which is the first volume of Laureta’s OPM collectives that was released in 2020.
Zyrus shared in an interview that it was always great to work with an old friend and to be included in Laureta’s projects. He even shared that Kung Kita’y Kapiling is one of the first kundimans he learned as a kid so it has a special place in his heart. Aside from the newly released single, he also sang another song in the new album, the other one was Maghintay Ka Lamang.
Aside from Zyrus’ singing, another surprise was that he starred with Rupaul’s Drag Race star, Valentina, in the music video. Indeed, Valentina’s presence elevated the emotions of the already heartfelt kundiman. Laureta shared how the music video with Valentina come into fruition saying, “Valentina was actually a friend of ours. She went to school with my creative director and sister. To see Valentina do such great things in her career and go into Rupaul and all these amazing things, it was super awesome.”
Laureta continued that they wanted to show something that’s not typical to have a transgender man and a non-binary queen like Valentina. He said, “having that representation is super important especially in these times. We were just excited to make history with that.”
Laureta met another huge success since the release of his first OPM collective, Kaibigan to another great volume two with Giliw— and that success could be attributed to the heart and purpose poured into making these projects. It’s about mainly focusing on representation in the international scene as Laureta is known for paying tribute to his Filipino musical influences and wished to continue to use his influence to introduce Filipino love songs. The musician says that with OPM’s distinct style, international audiences and performers can find a thing or two to appreciate about Filipino music.
Related: Exclusive: Troy Laureta On Bringing OPM To The International Scene
